The fifth version of “Environment” series of The Future Sound of London is being released two years since the last version’s release. It is known that the four of the past releases mainly consist of archival materials, but all of the tracks of this fifth version are said to be the ones that are being freshly recorded, meaning that it will apparently be the band’s new recordings in twenty years. In this sense, it is true that most of the tracks do sound more like music pieces characterizing Rock and Jazz, rather than Experimental Ambient music featuring forests, cities, and the universe, as have been in past albums. It is also interesting to know that Daniel Pemberton (known as the composer of the soundtrack of Ridley Scott’s “The Counselor”) and Raven Bush (a nephew of Kate Bush and a violinist of Psychedelic Jazz band, Syd Auther) are collaborating with the band in this album.

The press says that this album “explores the space / time / dimension that exists when we die. The moment of departure”. Indeed, it could be said that the album sounds very human when compared with preceding “Environment” albums. The first one of the series does have many imagery linkages with the well-known album, “Lifeforms”; it possesses an atmosphere and a story in which lifeforms make birth in the universe and newborns landing on the Earth, then experiencing the surrounding world. In “Environment 2”, there still exists a chaotic atmosphere which is like the universe mixed up with sounds of daily life surroundings, but is being fixed up well with some dance music aspects, while it becomes pretty ethnic and spiritual in “Environment 3”. The chaotic state seems to get in to a mode of sophistication in “Environment 4”, for you can find few of Progressive and Downbeat tracks included in the album. And the fifth album includes a couple of twilight colored Jazzy tracks, a piano requiem, and a track featuring choir vocals that remind me of Gregorian chants; and all of those musical factors make the album sound human, and makes me start to think that all of the chaos that we had seen in preceding albums are now quietly put in to an order in this album. It is as if seeing the course of evolution of lifeforms through “Environment” series, and FSOL finally makes us see the end of it, which would be the moment of death of human beings. The music itself of the album may sound a bit disappointing if you are expecting it to be something like “Lifeforms” and other “Environment” albums that are experimental and of IDM orientation, but once you determine it to be an Electronica album instead, you would have to admit that this is a gorgeous album which leaves you with a sense of unforgettable catharsis.